


The Eleventh Quest

by Gray_Wednesday



Category: The Cruel Prince
Genre: F/M, Faerie Princess!Jude, Hansel & Gretel Retelling, Jude is a barely willing white knight, Jude’s a dick, Jude’s on a quest, Weight Gain, Witch!Nicasia, chubby!Cardan, human!Cardan, inconvenient rules against magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:14:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 18,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25456018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gray_Wednesday/pseuds/Gray_Wednesday
Summary: In order to secure her place as the heir to the Elfhame Throne, Faerie Princess Jude has undertaken ten out of the Eleven Quests of the Compass, a magical device that directs faeries to problems in need of solving in order to test or develop skills in the seeker. Jude’s final quest is to rescue a pudgy human boy from a man eating witch. Unfortunately, the Compass’ ban on the use of magic on quests causes her first attempt to fail, leaving her and the boy chained in the witch’s kitchen. Jude knows her magic would easily overpower the witch’s but after coming so far, she must find way to save the steadily growing boy, who she grows more attracted to every day, without it or lose the Crown.
Relationships: Cardan Greenbriar/Nicasia, Jude Duarte/Cardan Greenbriar
Comments: 24
Kudos: 97





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I am a firm believer that Jude Duarte tops, and I wrote her that way. Please enjoy!

The smell of gingerbread was unmistakeable, wafting on late autumn breeze. It immediately roused Princess Jude’s empty stomach, which began to complain like a spoiled child. She pointedly ignored its whines and pushed on past cookie cutter trees and their decades of decaying leaves. 

Her quest would not wait for whatever witch wanted to entice impressionable children to their homes in hopes of making them stews. The title of Queen of Faerie was something that she desperately wanted, and by completing the Eleven Quests the Compass chose for her, she’d almost be guaranteed the crown, and she only had one more. But as she followed the needle, the scent of gingerbread grew stronger and her stomach rumbled louder, lamenting the nuts, berries, and dried meats she had been fooling herself were meals for the past few days. 

Killing a witch was not what she expected, but if that was what the Compass would have her do, then she wasn’t opposed to getting blood on her hands. 

The Compass directed her closer until a house made entirely of gingerbread and candies came into view. The glowing needle dimmed and then disappeared, revealing this as the final challenge. 

Minding her wings bound against her back by her cloak, Jude dismounted her stag and stalked slowly towards the house. Her feet were lighter than air and she made no sound as she stalked towards the door in the shadows. The windows of the house were alight with a golden glow and there was the sound of a young man singing.

Jude paused to listen, taking in the love ballad the man was entertaining himself with. The song was bawdy, more a lust ballad than a love ballad, and the voice was not sweet despite it being pleasant. 

Jude narrowed her eyes in confusion; witches can not sing, or rather, they can not sing well. When a person becomes a witch, their body decays until they can preform only the most simple tasks. Their body is what they give up in exchange for powerful dark magic, and that is why they lose any talents they had before, singing, sewing, woodworking, etc. which is why they most often take the form of elderly people in front of their victims, to disguise their disabilities as the maladies that come from old age.

The singing man must be a victim then. How cliche.

Jude peered through the window to see a chubby human man with ink black hair lounging on the carpeted floor inside drawing an extremely detailed picture of a tree with a tray of snack cakes beside him. He wore painted on breeches and a flowing white tunic that was also far too small for him. He was missing shoes, but his feet were kept warm against the nearing winter chill by an orange fireplace and dark gray socks. 

The man’s head started to look up, possibly to glance at the tree outside for his picture, and Jude trusted in her instincts to duck down as quickly as possible. Her armor made a faint clinking noise, but otherwise the environment was silent. 

Assessing what she had seen, Jude knew that the boy was being fattened for the oven. So where was the witch?

The Princess snooped around the back of the house, finding a well tended vegetable garden and stables containing livestock. The witch was missing from the scene, however, so she must have been inside. 

The back door was locked with an iron padlock and the stoop littered with faerie repelling herbs, so Jude didn’t bother even pretending that if she jiggled the knob it would open. She instead paced backwards a few meters and then, at a full sprint rammed herself into the door. Her shoulder blossomed with pain, but the hinges were now very askew. Unfortunately, unless the witch was quite far away, there was no way that the loud bang she had made had not alerted them. She jogged back the few meters and rammed her other shoulder into the door, causing it to collapse in with a shower of splinters and glass from the decorative window pane. 

Jude stood up from the mess and strode to the room she had seen the human in, she imagined tying him to servitude of her for a period of time in exchange for his life and her troubles. A year and a day would suffice, she thought. 

The man met her in the hallway and stood, gawking, at the fully armored fae before him. She made a too aggressive moment to collect him and he fainted, collapsing on the floor. She glanced around, but couldn’t feel the presence of the witch, maybe she really wasn’t there, off on a trip to collect more newts eyes or whatever she guessed. She gave the man, really more of a boy, at her feet maybe ten seconds before she began to slap his cheeks to wake him up. 

“Nicasia?” He asked sleepily. 

Jude furrowed her brow and groaned, why were humans so damn infuriating?

“You have to leave.” She said, hauling him up by his arm. It was difficult, he was heavy and soft, his round arms molding into her fingers in such a way that it was hard to tell if she was really holding his arm, the muscle and bone, or just the soft meat encasing it. 

“I don’t want to leave,” the boy complained, “I like it here, you take such good care of me—ack!” He recoiled quickly from Jude, fully awake after being slapped across the face.

“You’re not Nicasia . . .” 

“Come on, move.” Jude growled. She yanked on his arm with her gauntlet covered hand, prepared to drag him out of the house if she had to, no matter how heavy he must have been.

The boy did not move. Instead, he had a defiant look on his face and something a bit wild in his eyes. Jude saw the attack coming miles away, and caught his wrists in her metal fingers. She gave him a smug look as she watched him struggle. He glared in return and attempted to kick her, which backfired exquisitely as his socked foot connected with metal shins, leaving him hissing in pain.

“She was fattening you up to eat you, you know.” Jude said. “I don’t know what she told you, but I’m trying to save your life here.” She wished that she could just charm the boy and get him to follow her out willingly. But that was against the rules of the Compass, a contender wasn’t allowed to access their magical ability until they completed all eleven quests, otherwise they would forfeit. It was a permanent decision, once you failed, you weren’t allowed to try again. It was so bothersome that Jude wanted to tear her hair out sometimes. 

The boy shook his head, refusing to believe. He continued to struggle against her, but Jude could see the seed of doubt in his expression. 

It wasn’t enough to win him completely though, because when the sound of footsteps behind Jude signaled the witch’s return, the boy shot out of her loosened grip and into the witch, Nicasia’s arms. 

Jude spun and drew her sword, Nightfell. The witch was of the beautiful sort, best suited to luring their prey. 

“Get behind me, Cardan, I’ll protect you.” She said, her hands already glowing with magic.

Jude knew that she only had one chance before the witch dominated the fight with her ability to do magic. She lunged for the witch and sliced through her. There was no resistance.

Where the witch had been was a plume of purple smoke and the frightened boy cowering behind it. Jude snarled, whirling around the room trying to locate the witch before she went on the offensive. 

“Where are you, witch?” She boomed.

She saw the witch again out of the corner of her eye, and she slashed through it again, destroying another apparition. Causing her to roar in frustration. One would think you would get used to not being able to use magic, but Jude felt her magic roaring in her veins, just below the surface of her skin. It would be so easy to find the witch and crush her meager magic with her own superior power. 

“Come out, coward!”

“You’ve been telling lies to my Cardan?” The witch asked, her voice like honey and poisonous flowers.

“Faerie don’t tell lies. It is you who has been misleading the boy.” Jude replied, voice dripping with venom.

“Faerie?” The witch taunted. “Then where is your magic, little girl?”

Jude gritted her teeth, half out of her mind to start swinging wildly until her sword connected with flesh. 

The witch hummed triumphantly as she materialized in front of Cardan, who seemed utterly confused by everything that was happening. She raised her arms and closed her eyes as Jude charged her, sword high and prepared for the death blow. 

She was stopped in her advance by chains snaking around her wrists and ankles. Jude hacked at them with her sword and batted them away, but an invisible force yanked it out of her hand. Without magic, the shackles overpowered her. Her wrists were bound to each other, and her ankles were attached to a long chain leading deeper into the throat of the house. As the chain dragged her, howling into the depths of the house, she watched a collar slip around the boy, Cardan’s neck .

Within seconds, Jude was in a far corner of the witch’s kitchen, bound to the wall. She ran through her options, she could use her magic and break the bonds, she’d be free of the quest then, she wouldn’t have to worry about the boy at all. But it would also render the work she’d done for the other ten quests useless, all that effort and blood wasted. She rammed her fist into the wall, getting a satisfying thud in return. 

The only other option was to wait and see what could be done, find an opening and run like hell for it. It was a shitty plan, completely dependent on chance, and more fragile than a pixie’s wings, but it was the only way that Jude was getting the throne, so it had to work.

It wasn’t too long before another long chain appeared beside her and began to retract into the wall, dragging a stumbling Cardan to sit beside her. He sat as far from her as the collar around his neck would allow. Jude almost wanted to smile from the pride of proving him wrong. 

The witch sauntered into the room and leaned against the counter, watching her captives with amused eyes. 

“It’s true,” she said eventually, “I was going to eat you.”

Cardan’s breath hitched and his heart picked up speed. He looked like a child freaking out like that when he should have known from the start that he was being prepared for slaughter. The only reason a faerie would treat a human as well as the witch had treated Cardan was if the human was carrying the faerie’s heir, or if they were being fattened to eat. Cardan was most definitely not pregnant, his round belly was all pudge. Jude had to use all of her willpower not to roll her eyes in annoyance.

“I’m still going to eat you.” Nicasia continued. “So be a good boy and do you’re told, okay?”

Cardan made no movement or sound that indicated affirmation, but the fear and hurt in his eyes was clearly due to her words. 

“And you, princess,” the witch said, indicating Jude, “what brings Your Royal Highness so far from the castle?”

“I came to claim my cut of your meal.” Jude growled. “Surely you have more than enough to share.” Cardan misinterpreted her meaning and shivered. His retreat caused the collar around his neck to cut off his air and send him into a coughing fit. 

“You came to steal him from me, you mean.” The witch accused. “Why?”

“Prying into royal affairs is above your place.” Jude retorted.

“Fair,” the witch decided, “not that it really matters now that you’re stuck here as my trophy. You’re lucky I’m not a cannibal, but don’t think I won’t kill you if you cause trouble. Stay out of my way and we’ll get along fine.”

Jude continued to scowl, but did not have a sharp tongued response to fling back at the witch so she remained silent. 

“Now, I think it’s time for you to eat, piglet.” She said to Cardan before turning to the oven and snapping her fingers. A lot of things happened at once; pots and pans leapt from their hooks and racks. Ingredients flew from the pantry and their cabinets. Then, in a whirlwind of movement, they arranged themselves into mountains of food. The food then slipped itself into the oven or onto the stove and began to cook. 

“I’ll see you when it’s ready then.” Nicasia said while sauntering out.

“I’m so sorry I didn’t listen to you, you were only trying to help and I couldn’t see how unlikely it was that someone so amazing would actually want me.” Cardan blurted, the words tumbling out of him like a waterfall. “Please, please tell me you have a plan.”

“This is your fault.” 

“I-I know, I’m sorry.” Cardan’s eyes were pleading. “I’ll do anything, just . . . please help me.” 

Jude didn’t like people pleading for anything other their life, and only when it was her sword perched at their throat. Cardan’s pleading was annoying and unnecessary. What she would do to get him to shut up. 

“We have to wait for her to make a mistake.” Jude replied in an even voice. She glanced over at the plump boy beside her and narrowed her eyes. “Are you crying? Stop that.”

Cardan sniffled and wiped his eyes, “I’m sorry—”

“Stop apologizing too, just . . . be quiet.”

Cardan didn’t speak anymore, but the sniffling continued. It was just starting to cause Jude to feel murderous when Nicasia returned. She opened the oven door and pulled out a roast, a pot pie, and some cupcakes. She removed the large pot on the stove, which revealed itself to be a stew, another pot was filled with boiled garlic potatoes. There were a few other dishes that were removed from various parts of the kitchen. It was far too much food for two people, let alone one. 

“There you go, big boy,” Nicasia said with a smile. She set the food out artfully on the floor before him, but didn’t provide any utensils. He looked at Jude with wide eyes, asking for permission. Jude just gazed back at him, not bothering to affirm or deny. Eventually he gave up and tucked in, his obedience rewarded with Nicasia’s coos of “there’s a good boy.”

Somehow, the boy fit it all in. He looked like he was fit to burst, his clothes even tighter than before and riding up in some places. He was breathing hard and slumped against the wall in a defeated position, not making eye contact with anyone. 

The witch approached him and laid a hand on his round belly, which Cardan flinched away from like it was a cattle prod. The witch sighed and her hand retreated.

“Are you, are you really going to eat me?” Cardan gasped between pants. 

Nicasia pouted, “Are you really that upset?”

Cardan knocked his head against the wall behind him. His eyes were welling with tears again and there was a redness to his face that couldn’t all be contributed to how full he was.

“Yeah, Nicasia, I’m that upset!” He screeched. “I thought you loved me, but it turns out you were pampering me because I’m meat to you.

“J-just let us go.”

“I can’t.” Nicasia replied, already becoming bored. “You fattened up so exquisitely, you’re too delicious for me to waste you like that.” 

The tears were free flowing now. Cardan’s face was contorted in anguish from his lover’s betrayal. He’d been led to believe that he was loved and special for months, and now the entire life that he had planned out with Nicasia was falling apart. He was going to be eaten, and his chance to escape that fate had passed, he had been the one to run it through with a dagger.

“Don’t cry,” Nicasia murmured, “sadness makes the meat bitter.”

The sound of crying only escalated in volume. Nicasia eventually gave up and left the room, leaving Jude to suffer Cardan’s melancholy alone. The boy was a bit closer to her now, but only because he had to be in order to curl into a self depreciating ball and not be strangled by his collar. 

Jude didn’t say anything, deciding to try to ignore the boy’s whimpering in favor of inspecting the kitchen. There were knives and other appliances that could be turned into makeshift weapons. The current length of her chains didn’t permit her access to the kitchenware, but depending on the type of magic the witch had used, there might be a loophole. 

Moving very slowly and thinking of anything other than the knives, Jude moved away from the wall until her restraints pulled taut. She then pulled a little further and waited for them to stretch. The manacles dug into her wrists and ankles, cutting angry lines into her flesh. 

They didn’t stretch though, and Jude was left struggling against unrelenting metal. It seemed that the witch was smarter than she looked.

Jude sat back down against the wall. The boy seemed to have fallen asleep, definitely from all the food he’d forced into himself considering how early it was to go to sleep in the faerie realm, barely midnight. 

“Well boy, I don’t know how to save you, but this quest is meant to be solvable, so the loop must be somewhere.” Jude told the sleeping boy. “You’re lucky the Compass chose you for me to save, otherwise you’d have made a brilliant pie.”

The boy didn’t respond. Not even to rave that he didn’t want to become a pie. It made Jude lose interest in his sleeping form immediately. The problem was that there was nothing more interesting than him. 

Eventually she resigned to sleep, nothing left to occupy her mind since there was no new plan.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nicasia goes on a trip, but not without enchanting Jude’s handcuffs so she’ll take proper care of Cardan as well as find herself unable to escape the witch’s cottage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope the wait hasn’t been too long—thank you so much for your support ^^. I hope you enjoy this next installment!

For the next couple days, Nicasia followed the same routine, waking up Cardan and feeding him an impossible amount of food before leaving again. Jude was given enough to sate her, but other than that, was left completely alone. For being a trophy to gloat over, Nicasia seemed completely uninterested in her, not bothering to talk to her at all. Jude decided that she preferred it that way.

Cardan watched her with pleading eyes, but didn’t say anything to her. Instead of sitting as far from her as he could, he was practically nestled in her side. There was still some space between them because he’d gotten a bit to close to her once and gotten shoved back far enough for the collar around his neck to leave him sputtering. 

He was so different from the boy that Jude had met when she’d first arrived. That one had been inflated with confidence, this one was a sun-wilted plant, it was like the only thing giving him shape was the food that was stuffed inside him. It was disorienting.

It was after another endless meal that Cardan magically finished (and maybe it really was magic) that Jude finally got fed up with the silent begging and sniveling. The boy had the biggest saddest eyes she’d ever seen and she felt like kicking him as hard as her no longer metal-clad foot could (Her armor had disappeared as mysteriously as her sword, leaving her only in a puff sleeved tunic and breeches). 

“If you do not stop your groveling,” she glared in his reverent eyes, “I might strangle you with your arteries.” 

The boy was taken aback, his body jerking as if Jude really had kicked him. He looked down, ashamed of himself for annoying her. 

“Just . . . talk to me like one of your friends, your silence irks me to the point of madness.”

There was an intake of breath and a pause. Cardan’s eyes goggled about the room as the wheels churned out a topic, “ . . . So, Nicasia says you’re a princess?”

Jude raised an eyebrow, “I am.”

“The princess of Elfhame . . . so, will you be Queen someday?” Cardan asked. “Or are you not allowed since you don’t have magic?”

“I will be if my parents choose me.” Jude replied stiffly, pointedly ignoring his comment about her magic. Once this stupid quest was over, she’d show him magic. Not the lazy tricks Nicasia did, but the real power that those of the royal family had. 

“Oh, um, good luck with that, then.” The nervousness was back. “Er, what were you doing out here? Nicasia said that you were far from the castle, so you must have had business?”

“You should stop talking about her like she’s your friend.” Jude said. That caused Cardan to retreat even further into himself. Jude wanted him to snap back at her with that insubordinate attitude he’d had when she’d first met him, this was not going well. She wasn’t used to dealing with people who weren’t used to her surly demeanor. She sighed, “I’m on a quest that will show my competency and preparedness for the Crown. Saving you is the final leg.”

The boy’s eyes filled with wonder again. But there also seemed to be a kind of pride beneath the surface, he didn’t seem to feel as helpless anymore. 

“And you.” Jude nodded. “Why is a human this deep in the woods?”

The boy shifted uncomfortably as if embarrassed by the answer.

“I already know that you and Nicasia were acting as lovers, but how did you get there?” Jude pressed.

“I met her on a camping trip.” He replied. “I was near a lake and she just emerged from it like some kind of goddess . . . . When she asked if I would stay with her, I was too enamored to look past the thrill of adventure.” He looked at his pudgy hands as he wrung them uselessly. 

“I said yes.” He continued. “I liked being spoiled, so I stayed.”

Jude wondered how long he had been there. Maybe he’d come to faerie land fat instead of all of that extra meat coming from his time with the witch. It couldn’t have been more than a couple months as Nicasia hadn’t eaten him yet, but he could have been gone only a couple weeks or even days. He could seamlessly return to the human world then, pick up his life and forget all about magic and the like. 

And Jude could forget about him. 

After those first couple of days though, Nicasia told them that she was going on a trip. She obviously didn’t want to leave—there were no reasons to trust either Cardan or Jude—but it was a necessary evil. 

The removal of her chains sent a jolt of streaking anticipation through Jude’s chest. However, the incantations Nicasia was saying over the metal cuffs on her wrists dulled the spark of emotion. 

“There.” the witch sighed contentedly. “Feed Cardan thrice a day and once before bed, I’ll be back.” She took up valises that weren’t there seconds before before turning on her heel and striding out the door. 

The two captives burst into movement. 

Jude dove at the knives and Cardan pulled at his collar. The plan was to dig the knife tip into the lock and jiggle it around until the device gave out and opened for her, even magical locks opened for mundane methods. They’d shuck off the metal restraints and evacuate the house; she’d drop Cardan off in the human world and return to the castle victorious. 

It would be fabulous.

Her hand found the groove of the knife easily. She felt a rush of power in that first moment of contact, after long hours of helplessness and frustration, she was finally back in her element. She pulled on the handle.

Her expectation of no resistance was shattered immediately. The knife was jammed, it wouldn’t budge. Jude furrowed her brow and yanked on another knife, only to again be denied. 

The grabbing and wrenching on knives grew frantic, the order Jude had been going in was lost as knives were pulled but not removed over and over again. She gave up on the carving knives and turned to the drawers of flatware. They were thrown open gracelessly, baring gleaming metal nestled in wooden dividers.

The steak knives, salad forks, soup spoons, ladles, butter knives, chopsticks, and other assorted cutlery seemed to be glued to the wood and each other, nothing was removable. Jude growled in frustration, fingers curling angrily towards her palms like claws. 

“Jude,” Cardan called, “Jude,”

“What?!” The faerie snarled. 

“Just . . . Take a break, okay?” His arms were outstretched, palms down in a ‘calm down’ gesture. “You can get back to that in a second, just, breathe or something.”

The fire was directed at the poor boy in a heartbeat, but Jude had enough self control to keep her mouth clamped shut. She closed her eyed and lifted her chin so her face was angled at the kitchen ceiling. She swayed forwards and backwards on her feet, her hands balled in fists as she waited for herself to calm down. 

After a slow, silent minute, she opened her eyes and felt better able to attack the issue. She pulled on the knives again, two at a time going down the wooden block. She plucked at the immovable flatware. She glanced through cabinets for anything she could use to pry the lock, but there was nothing. 

Cardan caught her eye and motioned her to sit back down beside him. 

Jude narrowed her eyes before moving towards him. His clothes were even tighter than when she’d first arrived, tight across his belly and around his arms. In his seated position, his belly was in his lap, resting slightly on his upper thighs and obscuring his waistband. His soft arms were in his lap too, albeit more so on his calves as his belly didn’t really allow for his arms to rest on his thighs where a thinner person’s might due to its girth. 

“She’ll be gone for a couple days,” Cardan said once she’d settled beside him, “we’ll have plenty of time to think of something else.” 

“You have weeks left before she decides you’re fit for her oven.” Jude said eyes on the knives that had wronged her. “It is in your best interest to leave as soon as possible.”

“Are you calling me fat?” Cardan joked, his smiling face hid the fear that Jude could practically smell wafting off of him. He knew full well that this might be the only chance he got to escape being filleted, but Jude’s raging fits weren’t very helpful in that evasion. However, that realization only made Jude want to burn even hotter. 

It was shortly after Jude had ventured to another room of the house to look for other things she could use to remove Cardan’s collar that she found herself moving against her will. Her feet brought her back to the kitchen.

“Nothing?” Cardan asked, his voice pitched higher than usual.

Jude’s voice caught in her throat, how was one to explain that like a puppet on strings she was not here of her own volition without control of her body? She watched herself swing the pantry open and remove food items from within, dry pasta and flour and oil and sugar. She did the same with the refrigerator, removing milk and eggs and vegetables and thawed meat. With the ingredients she removed, more than are mentioned, she crafted a meal that she did not know how to make. 

She couldn’t respond to Cardan’s increasingly concerned cries of “Jude, Jude!” and so she didn’t. When the act of cooking permitted her to glance at him from her peripheral, she saw the confused and fearful look on his cherubic face. It appeared that even in such a short time as they had known each other he’d grown attached to her and her sudden shift in attitude was scaring him. 

She didn’t know why she cared what the roly poly brat thought, but she found herself despising that pained look he was giving her. There was something very wrong with it, even more so than the admiration that had been painted on his face before. The response that would have removed it wasn’t able to escape her lips. 

The unwilling silence persisted until the meal was fully prepared and laid out on the counter. As it lay there steaming, Jude finally felt her tongue relax and her voice return to her disposal. 

“That fucking witch!” Jude roared.

“Are you kidding me?” Cardan remarked exasperatedly. “You burst in here, you ignore me, and now you’re raving about Nicasia when she isn’t even here? Jude, what the hell is going on?”

“These cuffs are cursed.” Jude said, curling her lip. she glanced at the clock, which noted that it was time for lunch. “You usually eat around this time, so she made me prepare food for you.”

Jude didn’t miss the longing glance that Cardan made at the feast out of his reach. If she went on overfeeding him like Nicasia had before, the time left before he was in her oven would only continue to diminish. If she didn’t, the cuffs would force her to force it down his throat. Not just a trophy, but a puppet as well.

“I’ll just have a bit,” Cardan told her, grinning roguishly, “can’t risk losing my girlish figure.”

“You have to eat all of it.”

Cardan’s face fell; he was a clever boy, he understood what was going on. 

The wheels in his head turned further: unremovable knives, rooms devoid of spare keys, Jude cast as Nicasia’s puppet feeder to—every failsafe was in place. Even if they did escape, was there any telling whether the unremovable cuffs would cause Jude to unwillingly drag him back for feeding time even once they were out of the woods? He felt as inclined to a bout of growling and kicking stools as Jude was.

“Will I even be able to run once an actual opportunity arises?” He laughed bitterly. “It’s unlikely considering how damn fat I’ll be then.”

He watched silently as Jude rearranged that food around him. He accepted a wealth of utensils from her before surveying the spread. It was a lot, but nothing he’d have difficulty finishing, he was the witch’s prize pig after all. He reached for what was closest, a bowl of spaghetti lathered in tomato sauce and Parmesan. He twirled a fork in it before pushing it past his lips. It was just as delicious as always, the flavors strong, balanced, and nearing heavenly. It tasted like Nicasia’s cooking, like she had stood in the kitchen and made it herself. And in a way, using Jude’s hands, she had. 

When Cardan had first moved in with Nicasia, he couldn’t stop eating, knowing what he does now, it made sense why Nicasia was so happy to indulge him. There was always a plate of snacks beside him, depleting and refilling, keeping him constantly stuffed, all day every day. If he wasn’t eating, he would be soon. 

It was no wonder that the weight piled on so fast. The clothes he’d been in when he took Nicasia’s hand and followed her to her cottage in the woods were painted on within a week. And he really only had his own appetite and general piggishness to blame for it.

He’d been self conscious at first attempting to hide the weight from the gorgeous woman. But it was inevitable that she would see it, he knew that his self restraint was gone—he was only ever going to get bigger. 

She’d come in their shared room while he was changing one day, which had caused Cardan to fold in on himself and attempt to make the tiny shirt he clutched cover the entirety of his round figure. 

There had been a pause. A couple heartbeats of silence as they regarded each other.

“You are embarrassed.” Was what Nicasia had said to him. 

Cardan had exhaled a breathy, “yes” in return. He had then been wrapped in Nicasia’s slim, but shapely arms. She pressed her face into his softening chest and held him close.

When she pulled back, she inspected his body. However, this time, it didn’t seem like such a priority for Cardan to cover himself. He let the hands fisting into the cloth shirt to fall to his sides, inviting Nicasia’s scrutiny.

“I like you like this.” Nicasia had told him. “I can see how well I’ve been taking care of you.”

She’d let a hand graze the flesh at his sides. She rested it on a budding love handle before elevating herself onto her toes to press a kiss on the corner of his mouth. 

“You look delicious.” She’d hummed.

“You really think so?”

“How ‘bout I show you?” She’d grasped his wrist and dragged him underneath the bedsheets. 

He’d looked delicious because he was fatter than a sow come slaughter, and he ate like it. And now, he wasn’t even trying to fight the gluttonous urges that Nicasia had built up in him. He wanted to stop, he had to stop, but he wanted to eat even more. He wanted Nicasia to cuddle him on the couch and pet his belly while he stuffed himself. He wanted her to make a mess of him in every way. He wanted things to go back to the way they were.

Cardan knew that the current arrangement wasn’t Jude’s doing, but he still felt a kind of resentment towards her. If she hadn’t barged into Cardan and Nicasia’s comfortable little life, he would still have been eaten, but he wouldn’t have had to see it coming. He’d have been propped up in bed instead of collared to a wall sitting on rough stone flooring. She’d only been trying to save him, but everything that could go wrong went wrong. And it was Cardan’s own fault that she hadn’t been able to save him before Nicasia returned. His ignorance is what killed him.

“Are you crying again?” Jude’s voice interrupted. 

Cardan’s eyes lifted from his steadily diminishing feast to meet hers. She was leaning on the kitchen counter braced on her forearms. Even in such a relaxed position, she looked every bit like the faerie princess she was, every part of her screamed of power. She was strong in every way that Nicasia wasn’t, body built for physical activity, piercing eyes demanding obedience, even without magic, Jude was dangerous. 

“Do other humans cry as much as you, or are you special?”

Cardan huffed. The woman was insufferable.

“Most people don’t enjoy being eaten by witches, this is a normal reaction.” Cardan stated around a mouthful of pasta. “If you want it to stop, maybe you should save me faster.”

Jude’s smile slipped. She started to get that frustrated look in her face again. Cardan almost felt bad for saying anything, but if Jude really wanted sympathy for her plight, she ought to show the same courtesy to him. He was the one actually in danger of dying, and day in and day out she seemed completely uninterested in him and his feelings. He didn’t have the energy to coddle her if she was just going to ignore him when he needed the same.

“I’m going to go look for something that will break your bonds outside.” Jude told him. She went around the far side of the counter and escaped out the door connecting to the garden behind the house. Cardan watched until her iridescent wings disappeared behind the mesh of the bug screen. 

“What if we never find anything?” 

That was the one question that Cardan couldn’t bring himself to ask.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know your thoughts on this chapter in the comments below Ô^Ô


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nicasia returns home, and in realizing that her spell has worked out rather well, Jude remains in charge of Cardan’s meals. The two of them continue to bond and realize that they can be friends despite their differences. However, the revelation that Jude could have broken them out at any time with her magic causes drama. Unofficial chapter title is “why is Jude such an ass?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was really hard for me to write, mostly because I didn’t really have a goal except “I want them to get closer with each other,” lol. I write without an outline so there was a lot of stopping and starting in the writing process ;-;. I hope you enjoy it though!

Boredom eventually pulled Jude from her fruitless search through the shed in the backyard. After finding that she’d had the same problem as with the knives in the kitchen, she’d sat among the witch’s impossibly bright flowers and watched the insects like a sentimental fool. The wild flower stems nestled against her side, swarming her in a failed attempt at comfort. 

Who was Cardan to think that his opinion on how fast he was saved mattered? He should be grateful she hadn’t left him in the dust after being chained to Nicasia’s wall like a dog. She was a princess, for Mab’s sake, and she ought to be treated like it! Kissing her ankles and thanking her for even considering saving his worthless life.

She ripped a flower out of the patch, something she hadn’t expected to be able to do. She twirled it between her index finger and thumb, watching the painted petals spin. She quickly got bored of that and began to pull the yellow petals out one at a time before gripping the remaining ones in a fist and yanking them out all at once.

Tossing the bald stem to the side, she threw herself onto her back and watched the sky. 

Every attempt she’d made had led to a dead end. She was going to save Cardan, but she actually needed something to go right to do it. At this rate, Cardan might just have to save himself. 

***

Nicasia returned to a home perfectly in order, a well-fed Cardan, and an incredibly irritable Jude. 

“Well,” she intoned, “it seems that everything is still in order.”

Her valises were gone when she’d entered the kitchen, probably magicked up to her room. She stood in a tea length day dress in a misleadingly innocent light blue. 

“I think you’ve proven yourself to be an asset to this project,” she told Jude, “You’re in charge of his meals from now on, I have other things to waste my magic on.”

She turned around in a swish of hair and fabric and left her captives alone in the kitchen. She was gloating, rubbing it in that she had Jude by the scruff of her neck and that her claws couldn’t reach her.

The weeks passed by in a swirl of repetition and befuddlement as Cardan and Jude crafted and flubbed plan after plan. The roadblocks seemed impassible, there was no progress being made at all. 

Jude had taken to brooding, and bouts of silence, which wasn’t too different from her usual surliness, but it was stark enough that it was starting to freak Cardan out. At least before Nicasia had returned she would actually talk to him, now it felt like he was completely alone.

She hadn’t really been interested in him from the start. He’d always known that the saving part of saving him was more important than Cardan himself. A quest she’d been chosen to complete he guessed. 

He had thought that he was resigned to that.

But he wasn’t. 

It is uncanny how fast someone’s feelings about a person can change. From fear to dependence to adoration, he wanted her to hold him more than he wanted her to save him. Until now, the past few weeks had framed her specter in a different light and he wanted to follow that lantern any way it lit.

Jude was a strong person, and although things got to her, she always pulled herself back together with determination to achieve her goals. Maybe after not finding a solution to this task she was finally breaking down.

It wasn’t Jude’s aloofness and pride that separated them anymore, but frustration. 

And then Cardan woke up in her arms.

Laying on his side, he awoke for the nth time on the cold stone floor of Nicasia’s kitchen. Usually the chill from the rock below him left him freezing as his mind relinquished its hold on the numbness of sleep, but that morning, he was swallowed in the warmth of Jude’s grasp.

His face nuzzled into her chest and her nose in his hair, Cardan felt himself freeze. What in God’s green earth had brought this on? Jude’s hand was wrapped around Cardan’s waist so that her hand dangled from the wrist and rested on his plush love handle. Her other hand happened to be knotted into the hair at the nape of his neck, cradling his head off the stone floor.

Being cuddled by a faerie princess, especially if that faerie princess was Jude, was the last thing he had expected to wake up to. In fact, he’d thought it far more likely, even plausible, to wake up to her strangling him for being the root of her current status as witch’s captive and plaything. 

Hoping to save them both the embarrassment when Jude awoke, Cardan gently removed her hands from his person and slowly slid away from her. The chill in the room bit into the places where Jude’s flesh had been on his, but he didn’t even want to think of the repercussions using Jude as his personal heater would entail once she woke up.

Looking at her while she was asleep was a completely different experience than when she was awake. She didn’t look vulnerable, and if one were to say that sleeping took years off her face it would be a dead lie, Jude was in her prime and always would be, and she was most definitely not a child. But still, the serenity of her expression, free from all the worries of the predicament they were in was something to behold. 

Cardan hadn’t seen Jude without a knot between her eyebrows for weeks. And while it was nice to think that she was worried about him, he wasn’t going to delude himself with false hopes. Jude had an ulterior motive for saving him. This wasn’t just out of the good of her heart.

He wanted it to be, though. He wanted it to be him she worried about. Not just the task itself, but him, Cardan, as a person. The fact that he was human and she was not seemed to be the dividing factor between them. He was helpless while she was the strongest person he had ever met. Nicasia’s blows to Jude’s pride, the victorious faerie princess brought low, were almost more heartbreaking than the looming threat of Cardan’s literal death.

He wanted to be angry that she didn’t care about him. He really, really did. But the gap between him and Jude was so vast that his annoyance seemed trivial even to him. 

***

He was moping, leaning against the wall, back to her and recently damp black head hanging. 

Why? 

“Stop doing that.” She snapped after watching him for a couple minutes. Her wet hair from her own recent bath had left her shivering, but surprisingly, not irate. 

So why the hell did she care that he was sitting quietly apart from her, not bothering her at all?

“Sorry?” He glanced at her over his shoulder, obviously not understanding why Jude was addressing him at all. 

“You look like a willow tree that’s been drenched from a storm, a really old one considering how thick you’re getting ‘round the middle.” 

“And whose fault is that?” He retorted. He’d rolled his eyes, but Jude could see the ghost of a smile on his lips.

“Yours.” She parried. 

“For as high and mighty as you are, you act like such a brat.” Cardan laughed. He’d finally turned to actually face her, leaning back so his weight was supported by his arms while his legs stretched out before him and towards her.

“I am as far from a child as you can get.” She said in a mock offended tone.

“And yet you tell me I’m an old tree.”

“You’re insufferable.”

“You’re an ass.”

The conversation devolved into throwing venom-less insults back and forth and continuous giggling. 

Jude felt lighter than she had in weeks, probably longer. What was it about Cardan’s smiling face that made her want to keep that happy expression there as long as possible? 

Because it’s such a pain dealing with people who are so sad all the time. 

It should have been such a simple reason as that, shouldn’t it. 

***

The mood in the house had lightened. That signature look of frustration had left Jude’s face and demeanor, and Cardan’s own feelings of hopelessness had subsided. It wasn’t just because they were bored of feeling miserable though. The kinds of people that they were, they could wallow in their own misery for years is need be. But because Jude and Cardan were finally able to see each other as allies, they were able to cut through the fog of melancholy. 

Friendship was something that Cardan had not been able to see in Jude when they first met. She had been a lifeline, but not a real person with which he could connect. However, after laughing with her for weeks, she had emerged in full color from the distant sepia that she had appeared to him in before. 

They were sitting together on the stone floor, limbs splayed as they rested against the wall. Jude was telling him about her sister Taryn, who seemed to be from a completely different world than Jude despite them being twins. Even without the actual person here, the other prospective heir to the throne was easy to visualize. Although, maybe it was simply because Jude had mentioned that they both looked exactly alike.

Once she’d completed her recount of a time where the two of them had switched places for a day and how it had gone completely awry when they’d gotten into a squabble with each other during a fencing match, leading them to show their true individual natures. 

“Our father almost had our heads.” She laughed. “It was good that we mellowed out over the years, enough not to tear each others’ throats out at least.” 

“Is she as interested in the throne as you?” Cardan asked. He wasn’t sure what he wanted the answer to be, he knew that Jude would appreciate the competition, but if she really wanted it then in being her friend, Cardan wanted her to have it.

“No,” she replied, “neither of my sisters want to be High Queen.” 

“Oh, well that’s good. You’re a shoo-in for the job then.”Io

“Not really, just because Taryn doesn’t want to be Queen doesn’t mean that Oriana won’t convince Madoc to choose her.”

Cardan must have made a face because Jude burst out laughing again.

“What you want doesn’t really matter in Faerie.” She said, running a hand through her hair. “Not unless the Crown’s on your head at least.”

“So they believe that she would be a better Queen than you? Sorry if that’s kind of forward or . . .”

“Not at all.” Jude said waving him off.“Possibly, but it may also be because Madoc doesn’t very much like being King in the spotlight.” She said. “He’s better at behind the scenes shit. Taryn’s more in line with his ideas than I am, and Oriana likes her better.” 

So the reason why the throne was being abdicated to one of the Duarte sisters was because the High King preferred to have all the control with none of the responsibility, to pick and choose what were his concerns and what he could delegate to someone else. It was selfish and juvenile in nature, but Cardan could understand the appeal. 

Jude reached a hand into her pocket and drew out a silver disk-like object connected to a long looping chain. She cracked it open, allowing Cardan to see that it was a compass, the needle pointed straight through him.

“I’m using this to gain the upper hand.” She said, finger tracing the delicate design on the inside of the lid, a nest of lines crossing and arching and shooting straight in order to create an intricate depiction of a forest of trees of every kind. 

Cardan could appreciate the workmanship of the metal direction piece, but how it could help Jude in a competition against her sister for the title of High Queen of Faerie eluded him. 

“ . . . Why?” Was his eloquent and verbose inquiry.

“It’s meant to prove my worth as Queen.”

“It’s a compass.” He reached for it, almost grazing it with his longest finger before getting the back of his hand slapped. He withdrew it immediately with a yelp and began to rub at the reddening skin.

“It is The Compass.”

“Uh huh, and what does it do?” He demanded.

“It directs you to quests, what else?” Jude replied, her eyebrow quirked.

She launched into an explanation of how the compass worked. It had been created by Grimsen, a master in the art of creating jewelry, swords and other metalworks, maybe even the best in Faerie. 

The Compass was meant to point in the direction of eleven problems that the Seeker, could solve so long as they could figure out how. The first five quests Jude had gone on were reliant upon skills that she already had, sword fighting, a bit of espionage—her strengths. The more recent five were focused on building qualities that she was lacking in such as patience and empathy. 

“The final quest is meant to be a mix of the previous ten quests, relying on the skills you already have as well as the ones you should have built up through the latter five.” Jude said. She’d finally let him hold the Compass, but her eyes never left the silver contraption. She acted as if he could dent the metal irreparably with his bare hands, a rather paranoid expectation considering it was made of metal. 

“Like a final exam.” He said inspecting the very normal looking north, south, east, and west symbols on the compass’ face. If he didn’t know any better, he’d think that it was a normal, albeit very fancy compass. However, he’d swiveled it around his body, expecting the needle to continue pointing in the same direction, but it remained stubbornly on him.

“Yeah, at least this time I don’t have to stand in line for three days at a Yule festival to buy a girl a snack like in my Seventh Quest.” Jude sighed.

“Did you at least have a coat?” Cardan asked, imagining how long the line must have been to warrant standing in line for that long during the dead of winter.

“No, I left that spring and I hadn’t been home since.” Jude growled. “Luckily there were slightly more fires than were expected or intended.”

“. . . Oh . . .”

“The quests themselves wouldn’t be that bad if I were allowed to use magic.” She continued, looking at her palm. “But I can’t, so I’m just constantly suffering.”

“Wait, you used to have magic?”

“Used to?” Jude cackled, “I’m one of the most powerful magic users in Faerie!”

“That’s great Jude, except the Compass took it away and you can’t use it, right?” 

Jude cocked her head a bit digesting the question. Cardan waited for her to affirm his observation so that he could wallow in the misery of a lost opportunity. If she’d had her magic, maybe she would be able to overwhelm Nicasia and escape. 

“No, I still have my magic,” Jude said in a wooden tone, “It’s a part of me, you can’t even dampen it without smothering me in herbs or something.”

Cardan’s mouth gaped and he sat very still, staring at Jude for a couple moments, long enough for Jude to attempt to pet his hair so he would stop.

He brushed her hand away.

“You’ve had your magic this entire time?” Heat boiled beneath the words. 

“Yeah, I just told you that.”

“And you didn’t use it?” He demanded. The look of anger on her face cut Jude like a knife, but she couldn’t understand what she had done to deserve it. 

“Of course not, it’s against the rules.”

“You could have broken us out at any time, and you didn’t, what is wrong with you?”

Without a proper come back, she remained silent, her wide eyes beginning to burn with annoyance.

“You know what? It doesn’t matter, let’s just leave now, okay?” He pulled at the chain connecting his collar to the wall and offered it to her. She didn’t take it. She didn’t even look at it. Instead she watched him with confused eyes and a bewildered expression. 

“What are you waiting for?” Cardan asked, confusion spreading across his own face. “Just use your magic and we can get out of here.”

“I can’t.”

“What are you talking about, you just said you could—”

“I won’t, I’m going to complete the Eleventh Quest and win my crown.” She was gritting her teeth.

“Are you kidding me? This is my life we’re talking about! It goes without question that we’re leaving—” 

Jude’s face hardened. Her eyes narrowed and the fondness for her friend that had smoothed her previously permanent scowl disappeared. She gripped him by the front of his shirt, causing it to ride up his front revealing his pale belly until just above the navel, and yanked him towards her until their noses were almost touching. 

“You will cooperate with the rules that I set in place.” She sneered. “Do not provoke me.”

“That’s bullshit, Jude, isn’t ten out of eleven enough? That’s an A! There’s no way your parents wouldn’t pick you as their heiress.”

“Shut up. You’re wrong.”

“Jude, we’re not getting anywhere the way we’re going. At this rate I’m going to get die, you’ll going to return home without finishing this quest either way—”

The sound of flesh striking flesh reverberated through the stone room. It was high pitched and sharp, like a scream. 

The skin of Cardan’s cheek was already flushed red. Jude could see the stain of subcutaneous blood continue to spread from the handprint she’d defiled him with. 

He turned his face back towards her from where the force of her palm had knocked it to the side. His eyes were lacking tears, but his face was pinched with the pain of betrayal.

“Fine.” He spat. “We’ll do it your way, Your Highness.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please consider leaving a kudos or comment!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jude realizes she’s been an ass, but she has difficulty coming to terms with what she really feels about Cardan. Cardan is sad. Also how Cardan and Nicasia met.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it’s been so long since I last posted. I have been at college doing study. There should be one or two more chapters of this story, so look out for those!

Shame suffocated Jude like smoke. And yet she did not regret her decision. He wanted to be saved, she was saving him, what did it matter when it actually happened? 

Her hand still red and stinging, she thrust his words out of her mind and stormed out of the mesh door into Nicasia’s garden. Unfortunately, the witch herself occupied the space as well, she uprooted herbs too rare for Jude to recall their names with gloved hands, inspected them, and then laid them in a wicker foraging basket. 

Absorbed as she was in her work, Jude was able to slip from the back of the house around to the front without her notice. Outside of the garden, the woods reflected deep winter. Whatever wall of magic separated the two climates allowed Jude to see that the snow built up to her knees. In completely unsuitable attire, she stepped into the powdery blanket. 

The snow enveloped her bare feet and soaked the bottoms of her trousers. It was not a pleasant experience, yet she pushed on. She continued striding from the house until she couldn’t see it anymore. 

Her feet stung from the cold. She was shaking like a leaf, and every flurrying snowflake melted on her immediately, leaving incongruent wet spots on her tunic and short lived crystalline jewelry in her hair.

Unless she wanted hypothermia or frostbite, she had to go back. 

But she was too absorbed in her thoughts, and so she didn’t. 

Wrath and pride make for difficult negotiation. Even though she regretted striking Cardan and forcing him to go along with her final decision, she couldn’t go back on what she’d said or done. “Sorry” was a word that seldom crossed her lips. And never before it was long past due.

She knew what to do, what might remedy the situation. The answer was to go along with Cardan’s much more reliable plan, apologize for disregarding his thoughts and feelings, and accepting that she was in the wrong about trying to force him to lay his life on the line more than it had to be.

But she was too absorbed in her emotions, and so she couldn’t. 

Was it more so from anger at herself or the pain of ice on her bare skin that she screamed into the forest’s expanse of white?

***

She trudged back just before any real fear of losing her toes settled in. The garden wasn’t quite witch free, but Nicasia was far off now and it was too warm and comfortable to recklessly go beyond the barrier again. She slowly eased herself into a more level headed state. 

She knew she would have to face him eventually, tell him she was sorry for everything that she’d done and said. But for now, she was going to wander the witch’s grounds and forget about it. Maybe she could never go back and avoid the confrontation entirely, living out of doors was nothing new to her by since the Quests.

Walking at the edge of the forest where spring met winter, she found a very curious collection of plants. She recognized them as magical, but she wasn’t sure what they were used for. She’d never really payed attention to botany lessons, things that strayed that far from swordplay were Taryn’s strong suit. 

They were spindly with tiny flowers, really nothing to look at. Jude didn’t think such a dainty thing would be much use against a witch anyway, so she left it alone and continued to wander aimlessly around.

It probably would have been better to factor her job preparing meals for Cardan into her plan to avoid him indefinitely. The distinct pull at her cuffed wrists, the magic welling in her chest and demanding that she move, led her back into the witch’s kitchen. Her body willingly complied, but her mind swirled with panic at seeing him prematurely. 

Cardan had assumed a kind of deflated posture. She could feel his presence like a fog permeating the room, but her inability to physically acknowledge him as she constructed culinary masterpieces made it almost bearable. 

She placed the completed dishes before him and returned to herself. Despite her urge to get away as soon as possible, she couldn’t bring herself to leave again. She felt words in her throat, but they caught and she remained silent and staring. 

Cardan was seated cross legged and upright, supported by the wall behind him. He surveyed the food before attacking specific dishes, working around them in a practiced order. But, despite the methodical nature of his consumption, it was impossible to miss the pleased expression on his face. 

If he realized that Jude was still in the room with him, he didn’t acknowledge her. His focus was entirely centered on the food before him as he made his way from dishes that Jude knew he liked to ones she knew he loved. 

His dark hair was falling into his eyes, but he made no move to push it away. It looked so soft—he looked so soft. His body had only grown softer and wider during the time they’d spent trapped together. His shoulders rounded and sloping gently, transitioning into pillowy arms, and ending in pudgy fingers that whirled his fork dexterously. His belly puffed even further into his lap then when she’d first met him, and even then, it had been solidly occupying it. It didn’t quite reach his calves cross legged, but if he were full enough she might be willing to bet it would. 

It shouldn’t have been as mesmerizing as it was, especially not while they harbored such animosity towards each other now. Really, she should have wanted to be far, far away from him, Jude realized that, but what she really wanted to do, what would have made her most content was—

Ha ha ha no. She would not be doing that. She was going to keep her hands to herself. Cardan was first of all, a human, second, he was annoying, and third, he was absolutely pissed at her. For no good reason of course, but still, even children knew better than to poke snakes with a sticks.

And yet she couldn’t get the thought out of her mind. What would it be like to feel all that softness in her arms? To get it between her fingers? To have Cardan up against her?

It would never happen though. Reluctant friend was a role that she could play, but this was far above her pay grade. Why would she want to hold him like he was hers, put in the effort to him safe there, when she had a kingdom to return to, a crown to absolve from her sisters’ unwilling heads? 

Wanting to stay, but knowing that if she did, this night would go somewhere it couldn’t come back from, she steeled herself and slunk back out the screen door.

*** 

Cardan noticed the breath of moist spring air immediately. It was warm, but refreshing on his skin, which had started to overheat from the sensation of fullness. He wondered why she’d stayed, but more so why she’d left, why then. 

This meal was just like any of the hundred others she’d watched him plow through. He was sat on the floor, a waste of plates and bowls in front of him. It was a lot of food, but he guessed that it wasn’t a lot for him, not anymore. Jude had to have been as used to his eating habits as he was by now, so it couldn’t have been discomfort at that, but there had been nothing else that he had done to cause that kind of reaction. If she was still miffed at his outburst and pissed at him for valuing his life over her throne, she would have left as soon as she was able, but she’d stayed then too.

He wouldn’t admit it to her, but he was practically over their previous argument. He knew that he was in the right with his claim that she should save him with her magic, but he knew that that Compass thing and all those quests were important to her. Being High Queen was her goal, and with the far cooler head he was sporting now, he believed that he ought to go along with her plan; if she was going to save him, she could save him in any way she liked, whether it was tonight or from the mouth of the oven itself. 

Cardan had no doubt that at the very least, he was going to make it out of this shit show alive. He knew that Jude cared about him, he just wanted to know how much, and if she would ever realize it.

He glanced at the mesh door a couple times while he gathered the empty plates together, careful of his aching belly. He was too full to properly stack them for her or really move them farther than they were, so he leaned back against the wall and rested, the work only half done.

He let his eyes close, but he was too achy to fall asleep. His left hand rested at the crest of his belly, weakly rubbing loose circles. 

He’d gotten big recently. He was big before Jude had arrived, but he was huge now. There was so much of him everywhere. In any other situation, this set up might have been ideal (except he would have preferred not to be constrained to sleeping on the floor). Always having been enamored with his own weight gain, an environment where he was being encouraged to get fatter was a dream come true. It had been what he had sought in his relationship with Nicasia, what he had thought he had found. Maybe it had been too much for one person to wish for, no strings attached. He’d gotten what he’d wished for, and it would have been his undoing if Jude hadn’t happened upon them, if her Compass hadn’t chosen him for her to save. 

But what did it matter that Jude cared about him when she refused to act like a real friend? He was okay with her never returning his feelings—expected it even—but couldn’t she at least consider what he wanted was something of value rather than forcing him to go along with her decisions just because he was fully dependent on her to save him?

Just that would have satisfied him. He knew what he looked like, what a pig he had become. As a romantic partner, he was so far from Jude’s level that it wasn’t right to even fantasize that the future High Queen of Faerie could love him back. 

Even Nicasia hadn’t wanted him. She’d only indulged him because it suited her needs. The only thing Cardan was good for was fattening himself for someone’s oven. Jude wouldn’t even consider the idea of dating a glutton like him. 

But if he could be a friend to her, if she had considered his ideas valuable, he might have been content. Knowing that despite being in her favor she still considered him useless left him empty and aching.

He looked down, which forced him to take in his belly pooling into his lap. It seemed impossibly big, like there was no way that that was all him. And yet, when he stopped massaging himself and rucked up his shirt, it was impossible to deny that it was. 

The absence of his soothing hands allowed the ache to settle back in, but it was a good kind of hurt, the kind he wanted to wallow in. 

Why did he like this? What was with him that eating until it hurt, until he could barely move, until he was bursting out of his clothes, made him feel so fulfilled? He gripped the softest bits of his belly, the flesh spilling between his fingers. He lifted the mass and then let it fall back into his lap, it jiggled for a couple moments before settling and molding to the tops of his thighs. 

It felt so good. Even with the sting of putting too much pressure on his stomach, it was heavenly. Maybe it was because of the pain. Maybe it was because of what eating like this did to him. But deep down, he knew that even if Jude wasn’t tasked with making sure he forced those enormous meals down his throat, he would have done it himself anyway. He loved every pound he’d eagerly put on himself. 

No wonder it had been so easy for Nicasia to ensnare him. Giving Cardan everything he’d ever wanted was easy, just food and a bit of attention and he was hers completely. The only problem was that it would never be sincere; as simple as his requests were, they were impossible to fulfill because there was not one other person who shared and complimented his interests.

He let his hands wander back to the crest of his belly to chase the aching sensation away again, wondering what it would feel like if they were Jude’s as heat dusted his cheeks.

*** 

Single parent households can be beautiful. A strong bond forming between parent and child. With a single source of income, one can learn amazing lessons of sacrifice and the value of family.  
  
For Cardan, living with his mother accomplished none of this. If there had ever been a bond between him and Asha, it had dried up long ago. So far in the distant past that he couldn’t dredge up any memories of a time when they’d been close.

He probably shouldn’t have let his mother live with him when she’d become financially ill and needed a place to stay. His childhood had not been golden, and his mother’s presence would not lead his adulthood to be either. But she’d raised him, and although it wasn’t quite love, he cared about her.

Asha was out of the house now, like she usually was most nights, and tonight, so was he. 

She had gone to another party and would come back drunk, completely forgetting that he’d gone on a camping trip. And when he came back in a couple days, either she wouldn’t notice he’d been gone, or she’d claim she missed him and he’d be smothered for a short while until she got bored of him again.

The woods at the edge of the neighborhood were expansive to say the least. And despite still being able to see rooftops from where he’d set up his tent, it was easy to forget the extreme quality of his mother when he was distanced from her as he was. It was always all or nothing with her, either she was obsessing and cooing over him, or she’d forgotten about him. It was nice to forget about her, to not worry about her, for a change.

A warm wind rustled the leaves and carried the scent of late May flowers. It was cozy in the tent, even smothered as he was in blankets he’d pilfered from the house, he wasn’t burning from the heat. Despite that comfort, he couldn’t seem to fall asleep. 

He watched the ceiling of the tent, listening to sound of chirping crickets and small mammals running through the underbrush. He wondered if it would be so bad to stay in the woods forever. It felt so strangely like home.

He must have fallen asleep at some point because he woke up to a fierce tugging deeper into the forest. It was a mental sensation, a nagging thought that there was something waiting for him, and he needed to find it. Sitting up very straight in bed, he looked through the mesh window of the tent in the direction of the part of the woods everyone knew not to go too far into.

Electing to ignore it, he tried to resettle himself back in his bedroll and blankets. However the call from deep in the woods wouldn’t let him go back to sleep. 

Throwing off his covers, he unzipped the front flap of his tent. He shoved his feet into his shoes and took up a flashlight before, against every logical bone in his body, he followed the tugging sensation. 

He’s just go in the direction his head was telling him to for a couple paces. It would be a couple minutes of walking and he’d come right back.

After an hour, he knew he was lost. But whatever was leading him into the forest, it didn’t feel malicious. In fact, he felt more comfortable following the pull deeper into the woods than trying to find his way back to his tent on his own. 

It became stronger and more insistent the deeper he went. And eventually, the sound of water became audible. 

Pushing aside a low hanging branch, the tugging feeling finally disappeared, and Cardan was on the bank of a sprawling lake. In the moonlight, the crystalline water seemed to glow light blue. 

Then, out of the lake, emerged the most beautiful person Cardan had ever seen.

The turquoise crown of her head broke the water’s surface as she emerged like Arthur’s Lady of the Lake. Her hands were barely visible in the tulle of her skirts, which seemed to flow as if still underwater despite the fact that she was now suspended on the rippling surface of the water. 

“Take me home,” she said with a radiant smile directed Cardans way, “and you may stay with me forever.”

There was a pregnant pause as Cardan tried to reconcile her words with a far more logical conclusion to his goose chase into the forest. He wasn’t quite sure whether he should choose to help this floating person, or try to make his way back to his tent on his own at a dead sprint. 

“You,” he began, words pouring out slowly, “you can’t go home on your own?”

“It is how my curse works,” she said, a nostalgic and sad expression crossing her face. “I just need you to walk with me. Nothing else.”

An idea formulated in his head. Helping a glowing lady who was walking on water was not what he had been expecting to do tonight, but it was better than a lot of other things that could have come out of running off into the woods after a gut feeling. 

“I’ll help you, but once you get home, will you help me find my tent again?” He asked. “It’s at the edge of the forest . . .”

“I know.” She replied. “I brought you here. If that is what you want, then I will help you after you have helped me.” She strode onto the shore of the lake, her bare feet digging into sand as she led Cardan still deeper into the woods.

Such a strange occurrence should have terrified him. He really shouldn’t be at all comfortable following a mysterious lake woman even deeper into the forest than he already was. And yet, the fact that he was completely fine with this and her promise to help him get back home made all the difference.

There was no path, but Nicasia, who had introduced herself shortly into the journey, was completely sure footed as she made her way through the endless maze of tree columns and leafy plants on the forest floor. In comparison to Cardan’s trek to the lake, this one to Nicasia’s cottage was a short one, and far more pleasant with company. 

When they came upon it, Cardan saw that the house had two floors. It was small, but if it was just Nicasia living there, there was plenty of room. There were stables around back that he could only see the corner of from his vantage point as well as a garden, which was very well tended.

What was most shocking though, was the fact that the house was made out of gingerbread and sugar like something out of a fairytale. He inspected the detailed frosting embellishment before turning his attention back to the front door to see if they’re really been able to return Nicasia home.

Nicasia went up the short steps to the little porch. She glanced back at him with an excited expression. She looked so pleased that it made Cardan’s heart jump a bit. 

She opened the door with ease, making Cardan feel kind of good about himself for helping her break whatever curse had been on her. When he caught another glance at her face, she was positively beaming before she disappeared into the house. It was a couple moments of waiting outside that Nicasia re-emerged. 

“Would you like to come in?” She asked.

“I-I wouldn’t want to intrude—”

“Not at all!” She practically dragged him into the house. 

The interior of the house was a bit more practical that the outside. The rafters were wood, and the floor too except where it became dust and stone. The walls were papered with floral prints and solid pastels. 

“How do you keep the bugs away?” Cardan breathed. It was impossibly cozy, a place one would expect a kind old lady to haunt. 

“Magic, of course.” She replied, attention still captured by the interior as she became reacquainted with it. Cardan didn’t feel the need to question further considering she had just recently emerged from a glowing lake and then stood on top of it like Jesus. 

“Well, you brought me all the way back.” Nicasia said softly. “Surely I can repay you with something in addition to simply returning you.”

“You don’t need to do anything, I was happy to help!” Cardan replied, hands up. 

“I wouldn’t feel right just letting you go, this meant a lot to me.” She went to sit in one of the cushioned wicker chairs about a pale wooden table. She assumed a contemplative position, chin in her palms, elbows braced on her knees. She glanced out the window.

“It’s almost time to sleep.” She noted.

Cardan ducked his head for a look out the window. It was pitch black outside, somehow impossibly darker than when he’d been walking with Nicasia. 

“I should be asleep right now.” He said, but he felt so awake at that moment that the thought of going to sleep was not enticing in the least.

“Can I make you dinner? As my way of thanking you?”

“If, um, if you’d like to.” His cheeks might have gone a bit ruddy at the thought of staying with her for just a bit longer.

A bright grin emerged on Nicasia’s face, she looked so open and personable that Cardan could almost see himself staying there with her. This place was nothing like home, it was beautifully warm and comfortable, completely different from cold shoulders and dark, empty rooms. 

She tugged at his arm and led him to her kitchen. She sat him in another chair before rooting around until she came up with all the things she wanted. Then, defying all of Newton’s laws, the pots and pans and ingredients and measuring tools leapt into the air and danced around each other as they created a feast far too large for only two people. 

“I may have done all this just to impress you.” Nicasia joked.

“Well it worked.” Cardan snorted.

“Erm, my offer still stands,” she said, glancing to the side, “you can stay as long as you like. You won’t have to worry about anything. I promise I’ll take good care of you.” 

He went to sleep in the witch’s house fuller than he’d ever been in his life and truly considering a life in the woods with this impossibly kind and beautiful individual. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please consider leaving a kudos or comment! 
> 
> I didn’t get any comments last chapter and I’m salty.
> 
> Also do you guys wanna see the art I made for this fic?


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jude is horny, Cardan’s like no you don’t really love me *swoons*, and then Jude has character development TM, but I was horny so it’s only implied, and then Jude stuffs Cardan and they cuddle for what feels like 3 seconds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jude Duarte Fanart, as promised: https://gray-wednesday.tumblr.com/post/635726960883040257/faerie-princess-jude-duarte-from-my-wg-fic-the
> 
> Sorry for how barren it is rn, I will be posting more in the future, including the Cardan Fanart when the next, and hopefully final, chapter drops :)

It was during another sumptuous meal later in time that a truly disturbing thought crept into Jude’s head. She was watching Cardan intently, like she seemed to be doing often since she’d slapped him. There was no more chatter, just Cardan ignoring her, doing his, well she supposed it was his job, while she ogled him. 

Somehow, since their fallout, she’d become creepy. 

They’d always been looking at each other, mostly because there was nothing else to do, but they’d been looking at each other’s faces and communicating. Right now, Jude’s gaze was trained on his belly as it swelled out further while Cardan continued eating. There was no connection between them besides that blatant objectification.

Mesmerized by it, Jude could almost forget everything about her, all the circumstances that led to her, her having cooked a meal for a human boy for the sole purpose of fattening him up for another faerie to eat. And by the looks of it, he was damn near perfect.

It should have been a worrisome thought, that Jude’s time to win the Compass was running out and she still had no leads, no options—no, using magic was not an option—but instead, Jude’s head was filled with comments on how plush he looked, how much she wanted to hold him, touch him, squeeze him . . . feed him. And no matter how much she tried to push it out of her mind, the thoughts were still there.

She found herself inching towards him. A few moments was all it took for her to find herself by his side on the worn stone floor. They glanced at each other before averting their gaze. A plume of heat filled Jude’s chest at the sudden realization that she was totally infringing on Cardan’s space and violating whatever silent agreement they had made to not fuck with each other anymore.

And yet, she couldn’t bring herself to move away. At such a close proximity, she could feel Cardan’s soft side brush against her and she wouldn’t deny herself for the world. 

She stole another look at him, and there was a smudge of sauce at the corner of his mouth. 

He didn’t seem to notice at all, because he went right on eating, not even attempting to wipe it off. Then, it was gone because Jude’s thumb had wiped it away. 

Jude had only realized what she’d done after she had plunged her thumb into Cardan’s mouth so he’d lick it off. She whipped her now clean digit back to her side before they both stared at each other in shock. But Cardan looked so cute with his mouth gaping like that, that solely in order to add on to her preexisting embarrassment she cupped his face in both her palms and caught his lips in hers.

Despite the unexpectedness of all of the things she had done in the previous thirty second period, Cardan’s reciprocation was the biggest surprise of all. She’d expected her to shove her away or maybe slap her back for taking advantage of him like that, but Cardan’s mouth remained on hers and he was just as hungry for it as she was. She raked her fingers through his hair intent to mash his face as firmly into hers as possible.

It was quasi-magical, the kind of moment that you hear about in books but never really expect for yourself. But when they both came up for air the spell was broken. 

Cardan pushed her off of him, well he would have if he’d been able to actually move her, but Jude went with the movement anyway. 

“What’s wrong with you?” Jude demanded, her initial surprise at being denied wearing off and turning into annoyance. 

“You don’t actually like me, Jude.” Cardan replied. His hands were still on her shoulders, soft palms wrinkling the cotton of her blouse. 

Jude scoffed, “I’m not an idiot who can’t recognize my emotions. Even if you’re a human, I want to touch you and kiss you and all of that stuff. I understand if you don’t believe me though, I hardly believe myself—”

“That’s what I’m talking about, none of that stuff really matters, do you really care about me? Because I’m not looking to blow off steam, Jude, I actually really care about you, I love—you know what? Forget it.” He turned away from her, reclaiming his hands to what was left of his lap. 

“You care about me?” Jude asked softly. Cardan sighed and turned back, giving his head a single slow nod. It made something in her swell, knowing that, something that urged her to throw her arms around him and nuzzle into his soft neck. But she’d get an earful if she did that before she got him to chill out. 

“So why don’t you think I want you?” Jude pressed.

“I know that you ‘want’ me, even with all this apparently,” he said gripping his belly at the sides and giving it a jostle, causing it to jiggle for a moment before settling, a tantalizing strip of flesh revealed just below the hem of his ridden up shirt. “ But that doesn’t mean that you care about me, like even as a friend, Jude. You thought it was okay to put my life on the line for your goals and then when you didn’t like my solution, you left me alone for weeks . . . ”

He paused for a shaky breath, “Do you know how lonely it is here? I’m not like you Jude, I can’t leave or go anywhere—without you, I’m helpless.” 

“I know that I can’t really choose because I’m dependent on you to not die, but I’m not just a rung on your ladder to success, so please don’t treat me like I mean nothing to you.”

Had she really hurt him that much? It had all seemed petty to her before, a human who was used to getting their way getting into a hissy fit over not being saved fast enough. It made her feel sick to see how selfish she had seemed in Cardan’s eyes. 

“I . . . I’m sorry.”

“Thank you, just try to approach this differently in the future, okay? I’m fragile.”

He said it as a joke, but the smile he had on his face wasn’t a real one. It didn’t meet his eyes and even the corners of his mouth didn’t look solid enough to be an expression that wasn’t forced. 

Maybe it was time to admit to herself that Jude really did want Cardan to be happy. Even if it might not be romantic love that she felt for him and just some sort of lust, she really did care about him and seeing him hurt by something she did made her feel twisted. Experiencing these emotions over a human usually would have confused her, it did confuse her actually, but it felt right to feel like there was a wad of thorns in her chest because she had been the cause of Cardan’s pain. 

***

For the next week, Jude spent more time with Cardan than she previously thought she could stomach. She kept expecting the mood to turn bitter at the drop of a hat, but it never did. It seemed like after Cardan had gotten his feelings off his chest he’d become far less skeptical of her close proximity. In turn Jude tried to show that she was really making an effort to include him in her thoughts. 

They’d been close before, but now there seemed to be more understanding between them. Before, Jude wouldn’t have thought that Cardan could provide valuable insight, but time and time again he proved himself useful in developing plans for escape, and he was able to hold intelligent conversations about other things as well.

One night they were talking about Jude’s ideas for Faerie once she was High Queen. Jude was explaining the ceremony, where a sibling of the next High Monarch of Faerie puts the crown on their head to transfer the power to them.

“That sounds like a great time for a jealous sibling to assassinate their more favorable counterpart for the crown.” Cardan laughed. 

“It’s happened before,” Jude replied with a snort, “but the crown can’t be worn by someone who isn’t chosen. Even if they kill the heir they wouldn’t actually be able to rule because they couldn’t put the thing on.” 

“You did’t tell me it was a magic crown,” he giggled, a gesticulating hand flying through the air in front of him.

“It’s Faerie,” Jude scoffed, “everything is magic. Anyway, that’s how the crown hasn’t been removed from the Duarte line, it physically can’t be.”

“That kinda sucks though, if your parents don’t pick you, you can’t even get the crown by assassin—” Jude cut him off with a deft elbow to the ribs, leaving him giggling with his head resting against the wall.

“I’m not gonna kill my sisters!” She roared jokingly, her face a mask of mock horror. 

“I know, I know, you’re going to win it fair and square . . .” Cardan said nodding sagely, earning himself another playful jab at his side. 

“We’re gonna have to take a break from this because I have to get you fed.” Jude said, her bright smile dimming until it became a smile frown. 

“What do you mean? You can still talk to me while I eat,” Cardan responded. But Jude wasn’t so sure. After spending so much time with Cardan it was getting harder and harder not to pounce on him while he was eating, and if he smiled with at her while she told him another story about how Vivi stole Madoc’s cap and made questionable alterations to it just to piss him off while looking so soft and full, she might just finally do it. 

Unable to tell him that as she was, she gave in easily. 

After spreading the food before him and taking her place opposite him in a mirrored cross leg position, she started in on the time Vivi had managed to dye Madoc’s cap purple, which is far more difficult than one would imagine seeing as it was only red because it was encrusted with blood, but somehow Faerie’s most mischievous princess had still managed to achieve a blaring violet that had lasted for days.   
  
Near the end of the story, where Madoc had managed to turn his cap back the right color despite it still smelling like all the herbs Vivi had used to turn it purple in the first place, Jude found herself giving in. She wanted her hands on this boy and she wanted to make him hers. 

Her eyes widened for a second in realization. It wasn’t just that she wanted to touch him, but she wanted to have him by her side. She’d wanted him with her for a long time, and she felt ridiculous for not realizing it before. She—

She loved him.

“Cardan.” She said. “I, can I touch you?” Her tone was direct and her intentions bare.

“What—” Cardan yelped. “I . . . I thought we talked about this, I’m—”

“I’m not playing with you, Cardan.” Jude told him. “I don’t know how I missed it, but I really care about you too. So, is it okay if I do this . . . ?” Jude asked, and then she was suddenly right before his face. Her hand took its place between his jaw and his neck and she pressed her mouth against his. 

Cardan melted into it. His reservations seemed to disappear for a moment and it was just him and Jude, and they were each other’s. 

“Do you believe me?” Jude asked, searching his face.

“I do, I’m pretty sure you can’t lie anyway.” Cardan said a smile at his lips and a happy glint in his eyes. 

“That’s . . . true, but I would still understand if you didn’t completely trust me yet. I know that I hurt you, and this whole entire time, I’ve been completely ignorant of you.”

“You were, but Jude—”

“Cardan, just because I’m going to save you doesn’t mean that you owe me anything.” She continued, hand waving in a gesture communicating to Cardan to let her finish.

Cardan was flabbergasted, “You think I don’t trust you?”

“Well why not? I completely alienated you before and I didn’t think anything of it. There’s no way you can trust me blindly like this, especially because of what happened last time.”

There was a pregnant pause as they stared at each other for the nth time. There was heat in both of their cheeks and they were as likely to start making out again as to hammer out what they really felt in a proper conversation. 

“I like you.” Cardan said finally. “I kinda thought that you already knew though . . . . I didn’t want to hurt myself by letting myself believe that your sexual advances were actual feelings for me.” 

“They, um, they are, but what about escaping from this nightmare? Don’t you want me to use my magic and break you out right now?” Jude demanded.

“I mean, yes?” Cardan began, earning an ‘I told you so’ kind of look. “But I trust you, we’ve both had time to cool down since then, and I think that attempting things your way first and then using magic as a worst case scenario will work out just fine. I mean, I know that your Compass and throne and stuff is important to you . . .”

“You, you’d really trust me with this?” Jude asked, kind of breathless. It was surprising that Cardan had come to trust her so easily, but the fact that he was risking himself specifically for her needs instead of demanding that she get them out of that idiotic cottage, which she totally would have done, she was about to suggest it, was even more so.

“I mean, I don’t really have a choice, you’re the boss, but yeah.”

Jude gripped Cardan’s shoulders before suffocating him in a hug. She buried her nose where his neck met his shoulder and squeezed her eyes shut. It was heavenly, he was so soft and it felt like hugging an oversized pillow. His short puff of breath at the impact only gave her incentive to squeeze him harder. 

A long stretch of seconds later, Cardan was patting at her shoulder and attempting to wriggle free of her grasp. She reluctantly let up and he slid from her grasp. She must have had a pouting expression on her face because Cardan promptly apologized and insisted that the hug wasn’t bad at all.

“I really liked it, it’s just,” Jude’s gaze raked across his face, “I barely started with dinner, and I’m still really hungry . . .”

Jude’s jaw went slack. Her eyes landed on Cardan’s bulging belly, which caused him to duck his head to his chest shyly. It was very soft and flabby, but she could tell that he had already forced a lot into it. It practically made her salivate knowing that he still wanted more.

“W-would you like me to help?” She asked, her fingers twitching in anticipation.

“What?”

“I, um, I want to feed you.”  
  
“Is that okay?” Cardan replied, his eyes like saucers.

“I wouldn’t have offered if I wasn’t comfortable with it.” Jude insisted. She moved as close to him as she could. “I think you’re really cute when you eat.”

Cardan seemed pleasantly surprised by the idea. And a quiet, ‘Do you really mean that,’ followed by Jude’s firm nod and ‘I know what I’ve signed up for,” caused him to relax into her and open his mouth. She forked a bite into it before pulling back to watch him chew.

It felt intimate and soft between them, and it was smooth sailing for a while, both of them getting into a rhythm. However, a couple minutes in, Cardan made a soft noise of discomfort. 

“Are you okay?” Jude asked. She put a hand on the crest of his belly. 

“Y-yeah, ’m fine, just a bit full.” He leaned back and his hand joined hers on his stomach and began to rub. He leaned his head back against the wall and deflated slightly. 

It didn’t seem like he was in pain, quite the opposite actually, he seemed to be really enjoying himself. Even though it took a lot of effort to get a person as full as he was, Cardan seemed more than happy to go the distance. Jude’s thoughts ran wild. 

“There’s only this left,” She noted, hefting a pie and lifting it until it was just under his chin, “Do you think you can manage?”

“I think so . . .” Cardan puffed breathlessly.

It was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a small pie, but if Jude were to believe in any of Cardan’s strengths, she fathomed that even though it would be a struggle, he would persevere.

Cardan readjusted himself on the floor and opened his mouth for a bite of the pie. The pace thereafter was slow, but it was not too difficult to get down.

“Is it good?” Jude asked, watching him lick a smear of whipped cream off his lip. 

“Mm-hmm,” he hummed.

As Cardan progressed through the pie, his breathing grew more labored and his movements more sluggish. His head lolled from being so stuffed, and frankly, he looked debauched. His cheeks were red and his eyes heavy-lidded. His belly rounded into his lap obtrusively, making him look even plumper than he already was. 

Jude considered it a peek at how much fatter he would soon be, how pudgy she would make him.

By the time the final forkful was transferred from the tin to Cardan’s mouth, the poor boy was too full to even think straight. He chewed slowly before swallowing thickly. He then seemed to lose all strength in his limbs and core as he collapsed even further before sliding down the wall and sprawling on the floor face up, his belly mounding.

“Good boy,” Jude laughed. She rubbed a couple circles into his belly before gathering the pillows and blanket Nicasia had given him to sleep on. She helped him prop himself up and handed him the blanket to cocoon himself in. He covered himself up to his shoulders as she massaged his exposed belly under it.

“Do you want to come under with me?” He asked, still a bit short of breath. 

Jude felt her heart skip at the thought of being up against Cardan’s soft side. She eagerly slipped under the blanket and nestled into both the pillows and Cardan himself.

***

Not long after Cardan had fallen asleep, Nicasia entered the kitchen. The light was dim, but enough for Jude to easily make her out. 

“It seems you two have made up,” She chuckled.

Jude gave her a brief unamused look and snuggled even closer to Cardan’s sleeping form.

Nicasia tsked, “He’s gotten pretty big hasn’t he?” She leaned in to get a better look.

“I guess,” Jude replied, her heartbeat starting to pick up, “he could be bigger.”

“They can always be bigger,” Nicasia rolled her eyes, “but I’d say he’s just big enough, and wouldn’t you know it, Imbolc’s coming up in a couple weeks. And, I know you’ve been an unwilling slave in all this, but you’ve really done a good job getting him ready.” 

Jude’s heart stopped, “You don’t mean . . .”

“We are going to have an amazing feast this year!” Nicasia cried excitedly before starting up the stairs. “I want him ready by Thursday, okay?” 

She disappeared up the stairs delighted with herself.

Jude shattered.

She’d only just gotten Cardan, and even though she knew that she’d save him no matter what, it still felt like he was being ripped away when the bond between them was only just starting to form. 

How was she going to tell him that they only had four days left?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone who has been reading this story, I really appreciate your support and I just want to let you know, that I probably could have finished this on Halloween, but I had to be inspired by going into the forest yesterday to look at this dead tree that you have to cross like three creeks to get to. It looks really cursed, and I didn’t touch it because it was surrounded by thorns, but otherwise I totally would have, and that tree is the only reason why this chapter is available today. 
> 
> Please leave a comment or kudos if you have literally any feelings about this fic! :)


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time is up and Cardan’s going to die. Probably.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Imbolc (yesterday 2/1/21) is the signifier of midwinter. It promises that spring is around the corner and the time to start anew is coming soon.

It had been maybe three days since Cardan had let Jude feed him, and yet Jude hadn’t mentioned anything about Nicasia’s late night visit. She wanted to get it over with and off her chest, but she was honestly afraid to. She didn’t want to burst the bubble surrounding them and their newfound relationship and discolor the rose tint to their world, even though she knew it was the right thing to do. 

She wanted to forget the whole thing and pretend that they still had weeks, maybe months left. But, even though kissing Cardan was a great escape, it revealed new and unusual problems. What was Jude supposed to do with a random human she’d picked up on her travels? Would he even want to stay in Faerie after this?

Jude pushed the thoughts from her mind. Deciding it was better to focus on the present issue and get to other topics naturally and in time. 

Imbolc was tomorrow. But Jude was known for taking things in stride. If she stuck by Cardan, she could prevent him being thrown in a cauldron or oven or whatever. And if an opportunity arose, maybe they could find some way to incapacitate or, if the situation called for it, kill Nicasia.

It was as solid a plan as she could muster, but she still felt nervous. The closer the Midwinter festival got, the less prepared she felt. What-ifs flooded her mind, reminding her that she was under a spell and that even with two minds working together, she and Cardan hadn’t been able to come up with a solid plan for an embarrassingly long time. 

The aforementioned spell urged her to peel the covers back and get started on Cardan’s breakfast, a sour feeling curdled in her stomach as she obliged. 

As she prepared the meal, Nicasia entered the kitchen. She ignored her and instead crouched next to Cardan’s sleeping body prodded him with a finger before acknowledging Jude.

“I think I might almost miss him,” she nodded, lifting up the rumpled blankets and inspecting his belly. 

Jude had gone rigid, mind empty of retorts and chest warming with heat. She wanted to lash out, grab the witch by her hair and wrench her from Cardan. Snarl at her to get away from what was hers and then, maybe, possibly, bang her head on the edge of the kitchen counter. 

Instead, in an attempt to be calculating, she silently observed as Nicasia measured him with her hands. Nicasia stood when she was done, brushing her hands on her skirts as if she’d been dealing with a dusty barn animal. 

“But it would be a waste not to eat him when I’ve already prepped him so nicely.” She sighed before grinning, causing Jude to shift uncomfortably. “Maybe I’ll keep a bone or two to remember him by. And,” she continued, “I’ll give you first pick — I know how fond you are of my pet.”

She inched closer, her face arranged in a mocking smirk, eventually, coming within arm’s reach. 

Jude brought up a hand immediately, meaning to grasp Nicasia’s head and follow through on her previous idea to slam her into the counter and knock her out. It would give her and Cardan time to escape in any case. 

But she stopped. 

Her hand froze in midair against her will, suspended with such force that even as she tried to movie it, it didn’t even quiver.

Nicasia made a ‘pfft’ noise before laughing uproariously. 

“Ooh, I just knew you were going to do that!” She cried. “Sooo predictable, but still, priceless.”

Jude glared, tugging at her hand even though it remained unmovable. 

“That’s the difference between you and my pig, I think.” She mused. “Neither of you can go against your base nature, but while you’re fiery and proud, he’s ever so soft and pliant. You must have noticed, how much of a good boy he is. 

“He never once refused to eat for you, did he? He did all the hard work of fattening him up himself, I didn’t even have to put a spell on him to get him to obey me.

“You were the only weak link in my plan, but I can see quite clearly that you’re no threat to me now.” She glanced pointedly at Jude’s still frozen hand before sweeping out of the room. She had beyond made her point. 

As soon as the witch was gone, Jude’s hand was released, and in it’s lax state, it slapped against her thigh uselessly. 

The exchange left Jude hopelessly riled up, Nicasia was right about one thing; Jude was prideful, and being this useless was unacceptable. If she hadn’t hated Nicasia before, she definitely did now. 

Her face remained scrunched in a scowl as she finished preparing the food. 

When the everything was done, she snagged some for herself before waking Cardan up. She snuggled into him while he ate and he paused every few bites to nuzzle into her or give her a peck. 

Putting her arms around him, she found that her fingertips were the only part overlapping. She pressed her lips together as her heart fluttered, he was so fat now. She gave him a squeeze, forcing a belch out of him followed by a weak moan. 

It was distracting, and Jude felt her mood lift almost immediately. Nicasia had mentioned that she would miss him, but she didn’t even come close to understanding how precious Cardan was. She pulled back slightly, returning one palm to the crest of his belly. 

“Sorry,” she said, not even trying to hide her grin. He hiccuped before whining that he was way too full for her to be squeezing him like that. His helpless state made her want to tease him even more, but she really wasn’t in the mood to go that far, especially not with the current state of things. 

There’ll be plenty of time for that when you’ve got him out of here safe and sound, she reminded herself. 

When Nicasia returned, Cardan tensed against Jude, pressing into her as much as he could. She gave him a wolffish grin before turning from him and waving a hand. A cauldron flew out of the cupboards and landed on a conjured pile of wood. It soon sloshed with water, and as Nicasia lit a fire under it, it grew to a frankly enormous in size, definitely big enough to fit Cardan, maybe two Cardans inside of it easily. 

Jude checked on him and saw that his face was drained of blood. He obviously hadn’t been prepared for this at all, like her he’d thought he had more time. 

She grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze. They could do this. They had to. 

“When this boils, he goes in, understand?” Nicasia ordered with an impatient tone.

Jude blanched, it wasn’t even a proper order. “Just like that?”

“Yes, ‘just like that,’ really, it’s not that hard.” Nicasia rolled her eyes, turning out of the room with a huff.

As soon as she was gone, Jude began to tear at where Cardan’s chain was attached to the wall as she’d done many times before. The chain rattled obnoxiously, but the metal and stone did not yield. 

“Maybe you could try putting the fire out?” Cardan suggested. “Buy us some time?”

“Obviously it’s a magic fire,” Jude spat, “water’s not going to put something like that out.”

“It’s worth a try.” Cardan insisted.

Jude scowled before grabbing a bucket. She dunked it in the still tepid water and splashed on the roaring flames beneath.

It was like they didn’t even notice. The tongues of flame didn’t flicker or hiss. In fact they were completely unaffected, water pooling under the firewood and slowly beginning to evaporate without wetting the kindling at all.

Jude gave Cardan a pointed look. 

“You’ve been in Faerie god knows how long, and you still don’t know how anything works.” She complained.

“I assure you that if I knew anything we wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place.” 

The sound of gurgling water caught their attention. Jude peered into the cauldron and looked up, eyes a bit wild. It was only a simmer, but their time was running out.

“No matter what, you’re going to be fine.” Jude said. She felt her magic well inside her, already at her fingertips.

And then, the water was at a boil. 

Cardan looked to Jude, already backing away. 

But Jude didn’t feel anything. There was no compulsion to toss Cardan in the cauldron at all. They shared a confused and wary glance. 

It was interrupted by Nicasia returning. She swept in and abruptly stopped. 

“Why isn’t he cooking?” She demanded.

Jude’s mind went white as she floundered for something that might put her at an advantage in the situation. Somehow, Nicasia’s spell hadn’t worked, but she didn’t have time to work out how or why, she needed to focus. However, she had never really had a way with words, so instead she blurted out a half hearted excuse.

“He’s too heavy for, um, for me to lift.” She tried.

“. . . Really.”

“Um, uh, yeah, obviously there’s only so much that a person can lift, and well he’s just so . . . um, he just weighs too much?”

Nicasia gave her a slightly amused, slightly annoyed look before announcing that if she wanted something done she would have to do it herself, a villainess cliche through and through. 

And then, Cardan began to walk towards the cauldron. His collar was gone, but he still moved as if he were being tugged instead of actually moving forwards himself. His eyes had become glassy and his gait was overly loose, completely unlike how anyone would naturally use their legs. And he wasn’t using his legs, not consciously. 

He placed a pudgy hand on the lip of the cauldron, causing the skin to audibly burn. However, he made no sound, completely unaware of his actions as he tried to heft himself into the boiling water. 

When he was about to slip a leg in, Jude panicked. Her hands thrust out and magic swirled around her. 

With just a thought, creeping vines erupted from the stone floor of the cottage and wound themselves around Cardan’s limbs, dragging him away from the pot. They deposited him on the ground before retreating back into the cracks. 

Nicasia was bewildered, mouth agape and eyebrows furrowed. “But you don’t have magic.” She tried to convince herself.

Jude wasn’t supposed to have magic, or at least, she wasn’t supposed to use it. She had just wasted years of work completing quests, losing it all just when she could see the finish line. 

But if Jude hadn’t have pulled Cardan out of the way, those quests still would have amounted to nothing because he would have been dead. Jude wouldn’t have been able to get him out without magic. 

Nicasia used her own magic to pull utensils out of the drawers and launch them at Jude. Jude didn’t bother dodging, instead knocking them out of the air with gusts of wind. Since she’d already fucked everything up, why not just go all the way and end this quickly, she thought bitterly.

One knife got lucky and nearly grazed her face, forcing her to turn her head to avoid the glinting projectile. She caught the handle in middair and was about to lob it back when the wailing started. 

Cardan scrambled back from the cauldron as Nicasia thrashed about inside, splashing water everywhere. She screeched at the top of her lungs and clawed at the slick walls of the couldron as she attempted to drag herself out, but her fingers were gone. 

She was melting. 

The witch Cardan had shoved slowly dissolved in the water, her screams dying out gradually until all that was left of her were her clothes floating at the top of the water’s surface. 

The fire snuffed out. The water stopped bubbling. And the gingerbread walls began to crumble and rot. 

Jude gripped Cardan’s arm as the first chunks of candy debris began to fall from the ceiling. They navigated the kitchen until they pushed out the mesh door to the backyard. 

Only a few seconds after they had entered the wilting garden, the entire structure collapsed, bright colors dimming until the cottage became a mound of dirt. All of the magic had disappeared with Nicasia, leaving nothing behind. 

Cardan’s breathing was ragged, steaming in the suddenly wintry air, but he opened his mouth like he wanted to say something. He shut it again and slipped his arms around her, pressing his face into the crook of her neck. 

He had an even harder time breathing there, but he didn’t pull away, even after Jude had spent a long moment petting his hair. 

“Thank you.” He murmured, his voice breathy but starting to get back to normal. “I can’t believe you gave up your quest for me.”

It was so sincere, like he really was in awe even though Jude had literally told him that if it came down to it she would save him no matter what.

“I . . .” Jude began, but what could she say? That she wished she hadn’t had to? That she couldn’t believe it either? 

“It was worth it.” She decided. And in the seconds after it came out, Jude found herself realizing that it was true. Cardan was worth it, and she’d have saved him a hundred more times, given up a thousand more thrones and crowns to keep him. “You are worth it.”

He kissed her firmly, his round belly pressing into her. 

“I’m glad,” he whispered.

“Let me find my armor in the rubble,” Jude said, giving him a final peck, “And then I’ll heal your hand.”

He nodded and padded behind her as she began searching through the rubble. She didn’t know when they had started, but by the time they had found it, Cardan’s hand was softly held in hers. 

After she had gotten her armor on, she captured his injured hand and began to allow power to flow into it. The red faded until it returned to the pale color surrounding it.

Cardan pulled his hand back and flexed it before grinning at her in thanks. They connected in a kiss again, but were soon interrupted by Cardan’s stomach rumbling.

His heart fluttered nervously, their close proximity allowing Jude to feel it even through all her layers. 

“I want to take you home with me.” She admitted. 

“You thought there was any other option?” Cardan asked. “If you change your mind, you’re going to have to drag me kicking and screaming out of Faerie.”

“I thought you might be fed up with faeries seeing as you almost got eaten.” Jude interjected, mortified that he was so nonchalant about it.

“The keyword is almost, I had you to save me.” 

“Fine.” She grouched.

“In all seriousness, Jude,” Cardan said, his tone shifting, “I know that you care about me and that I’ll be well taken care of if I go with you, if a bit over fed. I just wish that I hadn’t taken your opportunity to be Queen from you. I’ll do my best to be . . . Whatever it is that I am when I live at the castle with you.”

Jude’s voice caught in her throat. 

“It wasn’t guaranteed even if I did complete all Eleven Quests.” She sighed. “And I still have a chance to be Queen, so it’s not the end for me, don’t worry about it.”

“But—”

“It doesn’t matter that this plan didn’t work out.” She insisted. “We can always try again.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this was a satisfactory ending, I think that it’s functional at best. If I find the time, I will write an epilogue because there wasn’t enough horny in this chapter. 
> 
> Please leave a kudos or comment if you enjoyed!
> 
> [Edit] I decided that I'm not going to write that epilogue cos getting hung up on it is preventing me from writing other works. It may happen, it might not :P

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment on what you think! I’m a slut for attention, give me validation.


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